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The federal government’s own statistics show that marijuana is safer than alcohol

The federal government’s own statistics show that marijuana is safer than alcohol

By Christopher Ingraham July 31 at 2:17 PM

Opponents of marijuana legalization return to one particular number over and over in their arguments: the number of emergency room visits involving marijuana. This ONDCP fact sheet breathlessly reports that “mentions of marijuana use in emergency room visits have risen 176 percent since 1994, surpassing those of heroin.” The Drug Enforcement Administration’s “Dangers and Consequences of Marijuana Abuse,” a 41-page tour-de-force of decontextualized factoids, reports that marijuana was involved in nearly half a million E.R. visits in 2011, second only to cocaine.